Interact
After the video, prompts are supplied for thinking and sharing with others personal perception and experience. This opening activity prompts participants to think about and relate to the topic, and to share with others
Review: “The Truth”
What makes something what it really is? Consider these questions, brainstorm, and share:
• What are five nonnegotiable rules that make basketball basketball?
• If you could choose only five songs to share with the world, which would you choose?
• What are the five essential ingredients you need to make a haystack (taco salad) and still call it a haystack?
• Imagine you are leaving for college with only one suitcase and one carry-on. You can buy ordinary things when you arrive, but you cannot take everything you are used to living with. What makes it into the suitcase because it matters most?
Now think about Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the truth” (John 14:6). After studying the Gospel of John, what are the essential truths about Jesus that make Him “the Truth”?
Imagine you can choose only five stories from John to show someone who Jesus really is. Scan through the Gospel for two minutes and choose your five. Which stories would you take, and why? What truth about Jesus does each story reveal?
Insight
The Bible discussion begins with a careful reading of the whole passage, either from your own Bibles, or from the provided images below.
Then participants are to ask:
- What is going on in this passage of Scripture?
- What are the key words and phrases? Highlight them.
- Why do you think this passage is included in the Bible?
- What does it contribute to our “knowing Christ” and “living in Christ”?
More than fifty years have passed since John walked with Jesus. The church has spread far beyond Jerusalem, most of the original apostles are gone, and a new generation of believers has never seen Jesus. Questions are emerging about who Jesus really was. John, traditionally understood as the last surviving apostle, tells the story one more time. He writes as an eyewitness: I was there. I saw Him. I knew Him. “We have seen his glory” (John 1:14), and at the cross he insists that his testimony is true (John 19:35; 1 John 1:1-3). John wants another generation to know the Jesus he knew—the One who called Himself “the truth” (John 14:6).
Notice how John finishes by admitting that his Gospel barely scratches the surface. Jesus did far more than any book could contain. John carefully chose signs, conversations, and stories that reveal who Jesus is and invite us to believe (John 20:30–31). The eyewitnesses would eventually be gone, but their testimony would continue. Jesus had said, “You also must testify” (John 15:27). John did exactly that. His final words leave us with a question: I have told you the truth about Jesus. What will you do with Him?
Insight Out
A parting video clip with a personal invitation to apply the message to “knowing Christ” and “living in Christ” in the coming week.